I'd like to wet sand my paint to get rid of the factory orange peel, but I've never done it before. I'm that "read up on it, try it, and make it work" type of guy. Here are some links I've found:

1. http://www.ehow.com/how_2182233_wet-sand-paint-car.html
2. http://www.vettebay.com/tips.htm
3. http://www.glossycar.com/

This is what I've gotten out of it:

1. Wash car with dish soap to remove dirt and wax
2. Always keep the surface being sanded wet
3. Start with 1200 grit in a small area with light pressure in even strokes (back and forth from front of car to rear) -- (I'll probably wrap the sandpaper around a sponge to get light, even pressure)
4. Work your way to 2500 grit
5. NEVER sand edges/corners
6. ALWAYS keep sandpaper and body panels as clean as possible
7. Wash car after done sanding
8. Use Polishing Compound to bring paint color back
9. Polish, buff, and wax

Does this sound about right to those of you who have done this and/or do this for a living?


I'll probably start in the middle of my hood and if it doesn't work out right, I'll just pay to get stripes put on.

 

1200, zomfg. no no no. you will scratch the hell out of it or break thru in record time.
2500...will be fine enuf for flatteneing orange peel. more aggressive paper will take out deeper scratches. try and avoid edges, maybe even masking tape them. go buy a "soft block".

 

All I need is 2500? Not even 2000? That would save a **** ton of work.

Should I still use the Polishing Compound after the sandpaper with this light a grit?

 

maybe a light compound, then a topcoat polish. i prefer Farecla.
you use water as a lubricant and coolant for polishing, it cuts down on swirls and burning spots on the paint. it is easy enough to wresk you paint with 2500, let alone 1200. basically, it will buy you more time before you mess it up, as i doubt you lack the experience to know when you have sanded enuf/too much. please dont take this as a h8tr reply, just trying to help ya man. i havent bothered to sand my car, except i just stuck on a lo-pro wing, and had to polish out marks as the hi-pro wing has larget "feet". one tip.... dont push, let the paper do the work, change pieces often, and be sure to wash out the paper frequently, as small pieces of clearcoat sand off into small pieces of debrit that gets caught in the paper, and will make way larger scratches. do one panel at a time. do not expect to be done in a day. dont rush.mask off door handles and such. hope you have a good quality polisher like a dewalt or makita. and a foam pads help too.
enjoy,
Fire.

 

Your never gonna sand out the orange peel! To do so you'd have to sand thru the clear coat and THEN do the paint. Then buff it out and re-clear it. Tooooooo much of a pain in the ass!

 

the "orange peel" affect is due to the clear coat. He's not wanting to color sand.

 

wow...i wouild NEVER try to ******* sand my paint...i just see a disaster waiting to happen

 

Oh man i dont recommend this at all. I think you should take it to a bodyshop bc your about to get into something that is WAY over your head. Not meaning that in a bad way, just saying its gonna be a hell of alot of work.

 

I've got all winter to work on the car, I'm in absolutely no rush to get anything done.


So is the orange peel really in the clear coat layer or is it in the paint?

 

It could be in either but its usualy in the actual paint itself. You can look at it and actualy tell, if it looks like the orange peel is on top of the color then its the clear coat, if it looks like its the actual color itself then its the paint.

Just to be clear I've wet sanded cars before and it is a HUGE pain in the ass! Unless its SOOOOO bad it looks like a 10 yearold with a spray bomb hit it then don't do it! An if it looks THAT bad can you say WARRENTY!

Seriously DON'T DO IT!

 

I woulden't try Factory paint jobs have no millage what so ever, so the clear is thin as hell, even with 1500 you will go thru in no time. 2000 is not coarse enough to sand out the deep pits and dirt with. If you really want to try it though I would pull ypor spoiler off and try it on the bottom of it that way if you do mess it up no one will see it, and it will give you a feel for how long it will take you to sand thru. I also recomend dry sanding with a DA and some 3M hookit discs, not wet sand. wet sand is to easy to make groves and deep scratches, especally since the factory clear is so thin. But If you have any more questions I will be glad to help. I worked n a body shop for 9 yrs. Good luck with it if you choose to try.

 

not to take over this thread but wtf is orange peel? ive never heard of that before lol

 

just dont, please for the love of god dont.

orange peel is when you look at your paint and it looks like the outside skin of an orange.

 

Hahaha dont try this. I tried wetsanding my scratch before I painted it just for ***** and giggles. and I broke through so quickly it wasn't even funny. Also the amount of time it will take you is going to be ludacris, to me the time spent doing that isn;t worth the amount it would cost to have it re-sprayed.

 

I didn't even bother to read anybody else's response. Please take this advice. If you have never done any form of wetsanding and have no experience with a power buffer, your car is not the first one to start on. If you do not know what you are doing, you will end up "burning" the paint. Which means that you ate up the clear coat on certain portions of the car. The only way to fix that is to paint the entire panel. Do not do it. I have managed a collision center for years and even I have net wetsanded the orangepeel off my car because I do not know how much clear coat is on the car and I do not want to have to waste my time repainting it.

I too prefer the 3m hookit drysanding, but people are so infatuated with wetsanding. In all honesty, the 3M hookit system is faster and more efficient if you know how to use it correctly.

 

word/\ i promise your paint it not bad enough to warrant what your doing

that like going for an oil change and end up pulling the crank out

and yeah the hookit II( think i used I and II) is good stuff

 

Alright, so I won't do the wet sand...

What if I just went over the entire car with a clay bar, polishing compound, then buffed with a polish and wax? Would the polishing compound help the car luster a little better and take out some surface scratches/swirls? (I don't know how the hell I got swirls, all I use is microfiber... Maybe the dealership didn't when they washed it before I got it?)

 

I would just go over th car with a foam pad and some polishing glaze, That will smooth out all of the hazy scratches with out alot of work. But I really Cant say with out seeing the car, If you can snap some photos, I may beable to recomend somthig better,

 

I've been over it a few times with clay, polish, and wax. And when I do my car, I'll work on it for 6-10 hours. I'm just curious how much help/harm polishing compound would do...

I can't really take a shot because my car's been sitting for the winter so it's collected dust/dirt/whatever over the last few months...

 

What color is your car??, and if your using a compound to polish your car that may be where some of your scratches are comming from. compounds have abrasives in them. Clay is not going to do any thing for the gloss and scratches, clay it designed to remove surface contaminates, ie: Tar, overspray, sap.... What kind of wax are you using?? and how often tdo you change/ wash your micro fiber rags??

 

My car is Rally Yellow. I've never used a polishing compound on it. I usually wash with Meguiar's NXT Generation wash and a microfiber cloth. I usually clean a panel and spray down the cloth real well, then rinse/lather it up again. I wash each cloth after use, and none of the cloths are very old at all.

And I know that clay is to get out the contaminants. Therefore, it kind of does help the shine a bit, but definitely not the scratches..

 

well I would try some light duty compound on a foam buffing pad and then follow up with a good swirl mark remover, I recommend 3m pefect-it 3000 system. You coul also try just using the swirl mark remover and see how that looks, I hope this helps.

 

Well I've got a cheap $50 Craftsman orbital that only has one setting, so should I just do the compound by hand instead?

Oh, and I've tried swirl remover but it doesn't seem to work well. I've used both Meguiar's and something in a blue bottle, and used both with the orbital.

 

.... I'm seeing some very weird comments posted here.

For one... your paint is under warranty... go check with GM first.
Second, taking a light sand paper to paint is not a crisis.... some of you guys need to stop pussing out and getting all bent up when someone suggests it. It's by far the best way to evenly take out a scratch. 2500, 3000, then swirl removal... all by hand... none of this rotary buffer crap.

And finally... the procedure for color sanding and orange peel removal is more for a car that has been freshly painted.
You prep, prime, paint, clear (lots), then color sand. If you are a noob and burn though, you can always re-clear (assuming your car is still at the paint shop), then try again.
Of course the simplest solution is always to do the perfect coat in the painting process, but it is not always the easiest.

On a side note... of the 5 vehicles and 1 bike I've painted, I've only had to color sand 2 of them... and they were both red....

 

DONT DO IT!! im gunna do my car in April. But i also have been working for a bodyshop for 4 years. If you dont do it right your gunna burn the hell outta your edges and paint and its gunna look like complete crap. Let a body shop do it